Resultados del estudio

The purpose of this study was to better understand compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress of critical care nurses. This chapter discussed the research design, setting, sample size, and how the data was

gathered and analyzed.

Research Design

A quantitative research design was used to conduct this study. A form of paper surveys was used in this study.

Setting

This study was conducted at a nonprofit, 101-bed rural hospital located in the southeast United States. They county’s population as of July 2016 was 81,168 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). The hospital was relocated and rebuilt in 2010 when it became part of a larger organization. There are three floors in the facility and two medical office buildings which are attached and not included in the bed size. The units in the hospital include: medical, telemetry, critical care, obstetrics, and the emergency department. The medical office buildings house many doctors’ offices and an infusion center. The doctor offices are for surgeons, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, and oncology/hematology. For this study, the critical care unit was used. The critical care unit is a 10-bed unit. Unlike the rest of the hospital, one is able to visit their loved ones at any time during their stay but only three visitors are allowed in the rooms at one time.

Sample

The target population for this study was registered nurses or advanced registered nurses who work or float to the critical care unit and provide direct patient-care by working at the bedside at least once a week. A convenience sample of 34 nurses were asked to participate in this study.

Protection of Human Subjects

Prior to the study taking place, approval was obtained from both the educational intuition and the research institution. This research was deemed to have minimal risks for participants. Participants were provided with an informed consent (Appendix A). Participation in the study was voluntary. Participants had the right to refuse to participate in any part of the study or to drop out of the study at any time with no penalty.

Instruments

Participants were asked to complete a demographic tool (Appendix B) and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) (Appendix C). The demographic tool was developed by the researcher and was used to describe the population. The ProQOL was developed by Dr. Beth Hudnall Stamm and has been used since 1995. Before 1995, the scale was called Compassion Fatigue Test. There have been revisions since 1995 and the most current version is ProQOL 5 (Stamm, 2012).

The Professional Quality of Life Scale measures compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue has two subscales: burnout and secondary trauma. The instrument uses 30 questions which are rated on a scale of one to five. A five point Likert scale includes responses of one=never, two=rarely, three=sometimes,

burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Scores are tallied for each section to determine a participant’s level of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.

According to Stamm (2005), the alpha reliabilities for compassion satisfaction is alpha=.87, burnout is alpha=.72, and compassion fatigue is alpha=.80. The data has suggested that the test has good reliability with a small standard error. The validity of the test was established with over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Compassion satisfaction scale has a 5% shared variance with burnout and a 2% shared variance with compassion fatigue/secondary trauma. While the shared variance between compassion

fatigue/secondary trauma and burnout is 21%, this is because they both have distress but are two different scales (Stamm, 2005).

Data Collection Procedure

An envelope containing a letter explaining the purpose of the study, an informed consent, a demographics sheet, and the ProQOL scale was placed in each qualified nurse’s mailbox in the critical care unit. Nurses were notified of the envelopes being placed in their boxes by an announcement in daily huddle. The nurses were given two weeks to complete the survey. Completed surveys were placed in a secured box in the critical care unit’s breakroom.

Data Analysis

Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics were used.

CHAPTER IV Results

Critical care nurses may experience compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and secondary post-traumatic stress from intense relationships they build with patients. The purpose of this study was to explore compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress levels of critical care nurses.

Sample Characteristics

Twenty-four of the 34 critical care nurses participated in the study yielding a 70.59% participation rate. According to the demographics, day shift (0700-1900) and night shift (1900-0700) had equal representation in the study with 12 participants from each shift. The participants’ years of experience as a registered nurse ranged from 1 to 32 years with a reported mean of 10.83 (sd=8.29). The participants’ years of experience in a critical care unit ranged from 1 to 25 with a reported mean of 7.00 (sd=5.93). Experience levels are displayed in Table 1.

Table 1

ProQOL by Years of Experience and Critical Care Experience (n=24)

Min Max M SD

Years of Experience Critical Care Experience

1 1 32 25 10.83 7 8.29 5.93 Major Findings

Nurses who participated in the study completed the ProQOL survey. According to the ProQOL, low scores are classified as less than or equal to 22, average scores are 23- 41, and high scores are greater than or equal to 42 (Stamm, 2012). Results of the ProQOL

survey demonstrated that high levels of compassion satisfaction were reported by 33.3% (n=X) of participants, while 66.67% (n=X) of participants reported moderate levels of compassion satisfaction. Low burnout was reported by 41.67% (n=X) of participants, while 58.33% (n=X) of participants reported an average level of burnout. Low secondary post-traumatic stress was reported by 87.5% (n=X) of participants, with 12.5% (n=X) reporting an average level of secondary post-traumatic stress.

Overall critical care nurses reported an average level of compassion satisfaction (m=38.2, sd=6.4), average burnout (m=23.1, sd=3.4), and low secondary traumatic stress (m=18.9, sd=3.9). Results are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2

Overall Average of ProQOL Results (n=24)

M SD

Compassion Satisfaction Burnout

Secondary Post-Traumatic Stress

38.2 23.1 18.9 6.4 3.4 3.9 There were minimum differences found between shift worked and the nurses’ level of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. For

compassion satisfaction, first shift had a mean of 41.2 (sd =6.3), while second shift had a mean of 35.3 (sd=5.0). The mean for burnout for first shift was 22.8 (sd=4.0), while second shift had a mean of 23.5 (sd=2.9). Secondary Post-Traumatic Stress had a mean of 18.8 (sd=5.0) on first shift and a mean of 19.0 (sd=2.6) for second shift. Results are displayed in Table 3.

Table 3

ProQOL Results by Shift (n=24)

1st _{Shift 2}nd _Shift

M SD M SD

Compassion Satisfaction Burnout

Secondary Post-Traumatic Stress

41.2 22.8 18.8 6.3 4.0 5.0 35.3 23.5 19.0 5.0 2.9 2.6

There were minimal differences found between years of experience and nurses’ level of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary post-traumatic stress.

Participants with one to five years of experience had mean scores of 36.5 (sd=6.8) for compassion satisfaction, 21.5 (sd=4.4) for burnout, and 18.2 (sd=3.2) for secondary post- traumatic stress. Participants with six to ten years of experience had mean scores of 36.8 (sd=5.2) for compassion satisfaction, 24.2 (sd=3.2) for burnout, and 20.7 (sd=4.6) for secondary post-traumatic stress. Nurses who had 11-20 years of experience had mean scores of 42.3 (sd=6.1) for compassion satisfaction, 22.0 (sd=2.0), and 19.3 (sd=2.0) for secondary post-traumatic stress. Nurses who had 20 or more years of experience had mean scores of 37.7 (sd=9.3) for compassion fatigue, 25.3 (sd=3.5) for burnout, and 14.3 (sd=3.1) for secondary post-traumatic stress. Results are displayed in Table 4.

Table 4

ProQOL Results by Years of Experience (n=24)

Summary

The overall findings showed that nurses who work in the critical care unit reported experiencing average levels of compassion satisfaction, average levels of

burnout, and low levels of post-secondary traumatic stress. According to this study, there were minimum differences between years of experience and shift worked in relation to their compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout and secondary post-traumatic stress. Years of Experience M SD Compassion Satisfaction 1-5 6-10 11-20 20+ Burnout 1-5 6-10 11-20 20+

Secondary Post-Traumatic Stress 1-5 6-10 11-20 20+ 36.5 36.8 42.3 37.7 21.5 24.2 22.0 25.3 18.2 20.7 19.3 14.3 6.8 5.2 6.1 9.3 4.4 3.2 2.0 3.5 3.2 4.6 2.0 3.1

CHAPTER V